THERESA May has suffered a historic landslide defeat in the House Of Commons tonight as it used its meaningful vote to inflict a crushing defeat on the Prime Minister.
Making a final plea to the House Of Commons to support her plan, she told MP’s “this is the most significant vote in our careers”. A vote against the deal, against a backdrop of a rowdy and volatile House, was a vote for “uncertainty and division” which endangers Brexit.
The first amendment was tabled by Jeremy Corbyn and it aimed to effectively make staying in the Customs Union part of the agreement, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the EU has already ruled that out as it has ruled out any change to the text of the Withdrawal Agreement. He withdrew the amendment Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP also withdrew his amendment. Sir Edward Leigh also withdrew his amendment which would have time-limited the backstop.
Tory MP John Baron persisted with his amendment despite Speaker Bercow calling it for the no side. This amendment aimed to give the UK the power to end the backstop unilaterally. This was dismissed with over 600 voting against the Baron’s amendment. Events moved swiftly on to the main event, the Meaningful Vote on the Withdrawal Agreement.
MP’s voted by 202 votes to 432 to reject the Withdrawal Agreement.
UPDATE: May says the Government will allow time for the House to debate a motion of No Confidence moved either by the Labour Party or any other opposition Party.
UPDATE: Jeremy Corbyn has tabled a motion of no confidence in the government.
This is a developing story. Please check back for more.
